Women in exile e.V.

Project website

SOLIShout

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Previously supported

About This Project

“Women in Exile” is an initiative of refugee women founded in Brandenburg in 2002 by refugee women to fight for their rights. We decided to organize as a refugee women’s group because we have made the experience that refugee women are confronted with double discrimination, not only by racist laws and discriminative refugee laws in general but also as women. The struggle against these laws is usually supported by mixed-sex refugee self-organizations and in our experience, these are often dominated by men who consider other issues more important.

“Women in Exile” was founded in Potsdam in 2011 and is registered as a non-profit association. In 2011 we also formed “Women in Exile & Friends” by activists in solidarity without refugee background. Together we conduct the campaign titled “No Lager for Women! Abolish all Lagers!” If you wish to support the campaign you are welcome to join our meetings, for more info please visit our website.

Our fundamental political goal is the utopia of a just society without exclusion and discrimination, with equal rights for all, irrespective of where they come from and where they go to. In concrete policy terms we focus on the abolition of all laws discriminating asylum seekers and migrants and on the interconnections of racism and sexism. We perceive ourselves as a feminist organisation and are one of the few links between the women’s movement and the refugees’ movement. In our group we experience that women can relate to each other, regardless of all differences like age, origin, religion, status, sexual orientation or other factors, and can make an impact together. Together we develop strategies to achieve political change and take our protest against the inhumane living conditions of refugee women to the public.

What we do: To date we work voluntarily.

We visit the “collective accommodation” in Brandenburg to offer proactive support to refugee women from the perspective of those affected, to exchange information on what is going on and to gather information on the needs of women living in Heims.

We provide information on current refugee policies -from a feminist perspective- on our website and collect information material for refugee women in many languages.

We organize workshops for refugee women to improve their difficult living situation and develop perspectives to fight for their rights in the asylum procedure and to defend themselves against sexualized violence, discrimination and exclusion.